On November 4 John Hughes, the Chief Editor of online weekly “ArmeniaNow” and the Director of “New Time” Journalism Training Center, addressed a letter to the RA Military Prosecutor Gagik Jangirian. The copies of the letter were sent to the heads of the International Union of Lawyers, Yerevan Press Club, Journalists Union of Armenia, the Public Affairs Department of the US Embassy in RA and the Internews Armenia public organization.
The letter tells that after the publication of “The Price of Privilege?: Soldiers murders may be connected to payoffs and the common system of surviving the Armenian Army ” (“ArmeniaNow”, August 15, 2003), telling about the murder of privates Levon and Hamlet Baghdasarians and their friend, sergeant Arman Davtian, committed on August 6 in Vanadzor, its author Zhanna Alexanian for over a month has been receiving telephone threats from the father of the brothers killed Sahak Baghdasarian. The letter says that he accuses the journalist of “defending the murderer”. In the opinion of John Hughes, the reason for dissatisfaction of Sahak Baghdasarian is the part of the article telling that the Baghdasarian family is known for “its business affiliations that include distribution of petrol”.
In the address to the Military Prosecutor of the country the editorial staff of the weekly expressed its concern over the threats to Zhanna Alexanian: “We take these threats seriously and we hope that your agency will take appropriate measures to stop them.”
On November 5 the statement of the International Union of Lawyers Tigran Janoyan was disseminated, where the public of the country is called to voice condemnation of the situation.
Yerevan Press Club also shared the concern of the ArmeniaNow editorial staff and the International Union of Lawyers.
